No Greater Love
by RenaRoo
Summary: Connie delivers some bad news to Steven, and Steven takes it upon himself to be a good friend.


the-owlknight prompted: Steven Universe Prompt: Steven finds out that Connie has to move across the whole country because her father is being transferred. So Steven sadly (he tries to keep it together) throws a whole farewell party for her. (I also don't mind if you leave it as romantic or platonic. You are the writer after all :) ) Thank you!

My very first Steven Universe prompt! Thank you so much : )

Steven Universe © Rebecca Sugar  
story © RenaRoo

 **No Greater Love**

"Almost perfect."

Steven stood back, surveying the blanket, the basket, the record player - all good. He nodded to each item, gently appraising when he noticed that there was a dish uncomfortably to the left.

"Hold on a second! You're not supposed to be there!" he exclaimed, dropping to his knees and shuffling over so as to better adjust the paper dish. "There we go. _Now_ , it's all perfect for Connie."

He sat up, looked around, humming slightly to himself. "Speaking of who... where _is_ Connie? It's about time for her bus. And Connie's never late."

It was one of the reasons Connie was Pearl approved, after all.

In anticipation, Steven turned over to his knees again, looked around the beach, and cupped his hands around his eyes. With a squint, he could imagine his vision had amplified for miles and miles around the sandy retreat.

"Hmm mmhmm hmm uh huh no no that's not it uh huh hmm"

He scanned the perimeter until at last his focus readjusted to an approaching figure - one that was distinctly lanky with flowing dark hair.

"Oh oh! There she is!" Steven shouted, leaping to his feet. He looked down slyly to the paper plates. "I told you Connie would be here. All right! She's going to be so happy to see me and this picture perfect picnic and then we'll- we'll..."

Steven hushed as he watched the slow approach of his closest friend, the slope of her shoulders, the shuddering of her crossed arms, and even more so, the watery snuffling that matched the tearing of her big, bright eyes.

"Huh?" Steven gasped, dropping his cupped hands to his sides before rushing over to her. "Connie?! Connie, why are you crying? I have a beautiful picnic set up and everything-"

"I'm... I'm sorry, Steven, it's just... it's awful," Connie snuffled as she passed him, dragging her feet to the edge of the picnic blanket.

Steven turned to watch as Connie sniffed, looked down to the blanket's edge, slowly and methodically removed her sandals, looked back to the blanket, then collapsed onto it face first. Her body heaved with a prolonged snuffle before deflating.

"I wish Beach City would just swallow me whole," she cried.

Frowning, Steven approached, removed his own sandals, and dropped into a sitting position on the edge of the blanket nearest Connie's head.

"Not that I'm not sure you would be completely delicious," Steven responded, gripping his knees, "but I don't see how that would be a good way to spend an afternoon rather than eating a delicious picnic meal with me."

Setting up on her elbows slightly, Connie continued to sniff, using one of her hands to roughly rub at her flowing eyes.

It was enough to break a Steven's heart.

"Connie... please don't cry," Steven asked, feeling his own tears beginning to form. "I mean. I don't know what's going on, but anything that'd make you cry has to be awful because you're the strongest most awesome person I know and this... this is all making me so sad that I might-might just start crying, too."

"No, don't cry, Steven, please," Connie begged, finally pushing up into a sitting position. "It's me being dumb. I mean. I already have to take the bus here from the suburbs. It's not... it's not the worst... worst thing in the world... I-I just..."

To Steven's alarm, Connie buried her face in her hands and began sobbing again.

"Connie," Steven murmured before scooting closer. He pulled Connie into his arms, let her nuzzle his shoulder.

"It's awful, Steven," Connie continued. "I-I don't _want_ to move."

Steven blinked, tensing slightly at the statement. "M-move?"

"My dad... he got a transfer to an even better job in the next city," Connie whimpered. "In Empire City."

"Empire City!?" Steven cried out. "That's... that's a whole day's drive!"

"But it's a better job," Connie sniffed, looping her arms under Steven's. "It's going to pay more and it has less hours - I'll get to spend more time with my dad. And it's the same distance for Mom's commute to the hospital... I could still take a bus to Beach City transit, and then it'll be a three hour trip but... I don't know if my parents would like that. And I couldn't do it _every_ day and it's... it's..."

Steven hugged Connie tighter, feeling his tears becoming piercing. "But... what about _us_ , and... and the Crystal Gems... and..."

"I don't know, Steven," Connie sniffed. "I don't know. But we're definitely moving. And I can't do anything about it."

"Maybe we shouldn't," Steven said.

Connie backed up, looking at Steven before wiping some tears again. "What? What do you mean?"

"I... I think it's good that you could see your dad more and that your family will do better," Steven said, looking deeply into Connie's eyes. "I'm sad. But. I want your family to be the best it can be, Connie. And that's super important. We can still see each other and be friends, right?"

Not matching his enthusiasm in the slightest, Connie pulled away further, pulling her knees to her chest. "I... I hope so, Steven," she said, laying her forehead on her knees. "I hope so."

* * *

It was hours later, when Connie went to the bus stop and seemed no more comforted than she had when she first arrived. Steven felt helplessly conflicted - he wanted to spend every moment with Connie he could before she moved, but being around Connie meant being reminded that she was sad _because_ of the move.

And Steven... well, Steven was simply miserable.

He drug himself to his beach home, managed to partially rake his hand over Lion's forehead, and climbed the steps to his porch. Steven waited a moment, sniffing back some of his residual tears and listened to the somewhat comforting sounds of the Crystal Gems within.

"Well, it's the best that can be done with this inferior technology," Pearl's voice sighed.

"It looks junky," Amethyst murmured.

"Don't poke at it, Amethyst! Really," Pearl groaned as there was a loud shuffle.

"Does it work?" Garnet cut to the point.

"It can transmit between screen projections on _Earth_ technology, but as far as being able to intercept messages that might be sent to Homeworld, well... I'm not seeing much promise." There was a thoughtful pause from Pearl. "I might have to scrap this version and we'll just gather supplies from the crash sites we know Peridot's been active. As much as Earth technology has been catching interference from Gem tech, it just can't match it on that scale."

"Well, if it's junk, can I take it?"

Wiping what he could of his tears, Steven entered through the door to be met by Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl standing around an impressive looking contraption of Greg's retired sound equipment.

The Gems turned to him immediately, while miffed at their own wasted day they were seemingly content with having him home. Steven wished he could feel the same.

Amethyst put her hands on her hips, smiling widely. "Welcome back, Steven! Man, you were gone _all afternoon!"_

Pearl tilted her head, eyebrows knit in a worried line. "Is everything okay, Steven? You don't seem yourself."

Steven rubbed his forearm against his face roughly. "Wh-what do you mean? I'm f-fine."

Garnet took a step forward, frowning. "You've been crying."

Looking to the Gems, Steven shook with a full body sniff. Sincerely, he asked, "In all the years the Crystal Gems were on Earth... did you guys ever have friends who moved away? Left you behind?"

The Gems looked to each other. Pearl stepped forward, kneeling beside Steven.

"We never wanted to interfere too much with human lives and change the course of events here, so we mostly stuck to ourselves before making friends with your father and some other humans around Beach City before you were born," Pearl explained gently. "But we have seen plenty of times how humans will move from one place to another." She thoughtfully put a hand to her chin. "It almost seemed like migratory patterns a few hundred years ago, but it wasn't all that often that it was the same people we'd see returning."

He looked down to his toes, wiggled them. "So... it's a human thing to do?" he asked.

"Kind of," Amethyst joined in, stepping up to put an arm around Steven. "I mean, even Greg's not originally from Beach City. He moved around all the time when he was still doing concerts. He's just been living here _your_ whole life so far."

"Human transport _has_ been fairly lacking for a few centuries now," Pearl continued with a nod. "We've never fully moved because our Temple's here, and with the Warp Pads it's never difficult for us to move to where we need and then return."

Garnet crossed her arms. "But it _is_ a big deal for humans," she reminded Pearl and Amethyst pointedly. She looked to Steven directly. "Steven, is Connie moving?"

Sadly, Steven nodded his head. "To _Empire City_ \- it's like, _more_ than one bus ride away. It's so far from Beach City..."

"Ew, it smells funny there," Amethyst snorted. "But they have the _best_ greasy hotdogs."

Steven felt his lip wobble. "Connie doesn't even like hotdogs..."

Pearl looked in concern toward Garnet. "Is there anything we can do? Connie is a very good girl, and a very quick learner. Not to mention... Steven and her can fuse."

Feeling a slight beacon of hope, Steven rose to his feet. "Wait, that's right! Garnet!" He pointed at her. Garnet pointed at herself in question. "You can use your Future Vision and tell me how I can keep Connie here. Maybe she can move in with us?"

"No," Garnet said.

"Huh?" Steven muttered, immediately crestfallen.

"Mister and Doctor Maheswaran make decisions on what's best for their family," Garnet reminded them all. "Just like we make decisions for our family. They're doing what's best. We have to respect that."

"But... Connie's a part of our family, too," Steven responded, dropping his head. "And... I don't want her to forget that..." Slowly, the realization dawned on him, he looked up, chest filling with excitement. "That's it! I'll throw a moving away party!"

"A moving away party?" Amethyst questioned before giggling. "Alright - that's my Steven, always finding a good excuse to Pa-a-arty!"

"I'll make sure Connie knows that even if she moves, she's never going to be able to forget us!" Steven nodded to himself. He turned in full grin to the Gems. "And then she'll definitely do everything she can to come back to us! Like on the weekends!"

Pearl looked to Garnet. "What do you think, Garnet?"

Garnet nodded. "I think that's a very good idea. Steven, you put together a party for Connie. Get Greg to help if you want."

"Yes! Excellent idea!" Steven cheered.

"Pearl, Amethyst, you two look for parts to begin building a different interception satellite," Garnet continued to order.

"What about you, Garnet?" Amethyst asked.

" _I_ will be in charge of presents," Garnet responded assuredly.

* * *

Connie didn't question the urgent text from Steven while she was at school. It had just said that she _needed_ to come to his house after school that day, and as it wasn't one of her tennis lesson days she was going to be visiting Steven's house either way. He certainly didn't need to clarify it for her.

Still, Steven did weird things, it was part of what was so great about their friendship. So Connie arrived as usual, only to be met with the smell of a smoky fire, the sounds of old records playing music, and colorful lights strewn up around a table lined with Fish Stew Pizza pizzas.

"Steven... is this a party?" Connie asked, walking toward the display, looking slightly more distraught as she saw the big banner 'WE LOVE YOU CONNIE' hanging from the porch.

Bursting onto the scene from behind a table, Steve wore the widest, most forced grin Connie had ever seen on him. It wouldn't have been at all convincing even _if_ his eyes weren't red and glassy.

"It _sure is!"_ Steven cooed before racing to her side.

Not exactly feeling cheered still, Connie just smiled down at Steven softly. "I... You didn't have to do that, Steven," she said softly.

He looked away, refusing to meet her eyes. "I know that... it's just... Connie, everyone keeps saying there's nothing I can do about you moving. But I wanted to do _something._ I want you to know that even if you go live in Empire City where it's smelly and full of hotdogs I'm not there to eat for you, you'll always be... _BEACH CITY AT HEART!"  
_

Without warning, Steven hung to her a little tighter and began quaking, his sniffles becoming louder.

"Oh, Steven!" Connie cried out, feeling her own lip becoming wobbly.

Shaking off her tears, she put her hands on Steven's shoulders and whipped him around to look at her directly. "Actually, I've been thinking about it," she continued, "and I _do_ think there's something you can do."

Steven blinked through large tear drops and tilted his head. "Wait... is it... squishing Empire City and Beach City closer together? Because when I asked Garnet about that earlier..."

"No, Steven, that sounds _very_ dangerous," Connie responded. "I mean you," she looked to the pink lion that approached and sat beside them, "and Lion. Lion teleports, right? Well. instead of us only seeing each other when I have enough time to take the bus... why don't you two just come visit me at the park near our new house. It's where the tennis courts will be anyway. I could even teach you how to play."

Blinking, Steven stepped back. "Oh. Yeah. I wonder why _I_ didn't think about that-"

"I have the present."

Connie and Steven barely had time to turn around when Garnet approached and dropped the large satellite looking contraption of Pearl's onto the sand by them.

"Whoa! What is _that?"_ Connie asked.

"It's transmitter or something," Steven answered. "Pearl made it."

"It looks complicated," Connie marveled.

"Not according to Pearl."

"We can't use it," Garnet explained, looking directly to Connie. "But it _can_ use screens from Earth technology to make communications easier. You and Steven can call each other and see each other that way."

"Woah, neat!" Steven cried out. "Great idea, Garnet."

Connie rubbed the back of her neck. "It looks awfully heavy. But... I'll find a place for it. Our new house is going to be a bit bigger anyway. So I'll just go ahead and get a head start on filling it up with junk before my parents do. Thank you, Garnet."

Steven grinned ear to ear. "You might have more in common with Amethyst than we realized!"

"Connie," Garnet said, getting the young girl's attention.

"Um, yes, Garnet?" Connie said with a blink, watching in amazement as the Crystal Gem dropped to her knees beside her.

"This is not a simple computer or cell phone," Garnet explained. "This is a device that will allow you to send communication to Steven and the Crystal Gems anywhere at any time. Any technology we are around will get your message, and we can be there to help you. In whatever way you need." She gently placed a hand on Connie's shoulder. "It's important to us that you know that you are very special to us. And we will be there whenever you need us."

Connie felt the tears coming down her face, but nodded rather than wiped them away. "Thank you, Garnet," she said before looking to Steven. "And thank you, too, Steven. This is a wonderful party."

"Aw!" Steven snuffled before wrapping his arms around her. "You're welcome."

"Now," Garnet said, standing back up and adjusting her shades. "Let's get the cake."


End file.
